


The Chain

by understoodbetsy



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Pete's World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-22
Packaged: 2018-01-11 11:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/understoodbetsy/pseuds/understoodbetsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So glide away on soapy heels/and promise not to promise anymore/and if you come around again/then I will take the chain from off the door." - Ingrid Michaelson, "The Chain." Another post-Doomsday Pete's World fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You, my love, are gone

Eventually, Pete and Mickey had tried to pull Rose away from that horrible white wall when she'd refused to budge. She had kicked and screamed, fighting their grip. Jackie stepped in and told them to let her be. Rose had fallen to the floor, still incoherent with grief, her body wracked with sobs and pleas to take her back. Jackie took her daughter in her arms and rocked her until she cried herself out. 

“C'mon, love,” Jackie finally murmured when Rose quieted down. “There's a good girl. Pete's going to take us back to the house. Let's get a bath and a cuppa. No use staying here any longer.”

“How...how long has it been?” Rose hiccoughed. 

“Four hours and forty-nine minutes,” Pete said, his voice succinct but not unkind.

“No, not yet,” Rose protested as Jackie stood and tried to help her daughter to her feet. “We have to wait. He...The Doctor...He said to always wait five and a half hours.”

“Rose,” Mickey sighed. “That was different.”

“No!” shouted Rose. “No! I promised him! I promised him I'd always wait! He'll find a way, I know it. He has to! We have to wait!” She was becoming hysterical again. 

“Jackie...” Pete implored the woman to do something, to make Rose see reason.

“Then we'll wait, Love,” Jackie soothed, sitting down with Rose again. “We'll wait five and a half hours, but no longer.” 

Pete was frustrated, that much was clear by his body language. Jackie wouldn't budge, though. She knew what it was like to lose your partner. She knew that Rose needed time to process this, and she'd do whatever she could to help her daughter through this loss. Pete looked to Mickey for help next, but the young man sat down on Rose's other side, putting his arm around her shoulders, silently showing Pete that he was in this with the Tyler women. 

Rose waited and waited, not allowing her mind to wander from the thought that the Doctor, her Doctor, would come for her. He would find a way to come get her and take her back to the stars. He wouldn't leave her alone, stuck on an Earth that wasn't her own. He would find a way. She had to keep faith in him.

Jackie held her tongue as she sat beside her daughter. She wanted to be alone with the man who looked and sounded like her long-dead husband, wanted to find out who this Pete Tyler was and see if they could make a proper go at it. But being a mum had taught her to put her daughter first, to make sure that Rose was alright before attending to her own needs. And right now, Rose was not alright. Rose was anything but alright. Jackie's heart ached at the words her daughter had said before they'd jumped dimensions the first time. Rose had been willing to never see her again, to leave her alone, an entire universe away, to gallivant around time and space with the Doctor. Oh, she knew that Rose hadn't been thinking clearly and she thanked that alien for doing his best to get Rose to safety, but in the end Rose had chosen him over her own mum. That certainly was something they'd need to talk about, and soon. For now, though, Jackie held her daughter close while they counted down the minutes until they reached the five-and-a-half hour mark. 

As if finally accepting her fate, Rose allowed Mickey to help her to her feet and lead her through the Torchwood corridors to the undercroft where Pete's car was waiting. She was silent for the car ride to the mansion, and still didn't speak as Pete took them through the house to the guest wing. She sat numbly as Jackie pulled off her boots and allowed herself to be maneuvered onto the plush bed. She didn't acknowledge her mum smoothing back her hair and telling her to get some rest after a long day. Rose waited until she heard Jackie close the bedroom door and make her way down the hall before she let herself cry again. 

Her body was wracked with sobs; deep, gut-wrenching cries. She cried for the universe she and her mum had left behind, for the friends and family they would never see again, for that tiny council flat where she'd grown up, for the life her mother had been forced to abandon. She cried for the life she'd had ripped away, too. She cried for the Doctor, alone in that great time-and-space ship that they both called home. She cried for the forever she'd promised him, and how she would now have to live out her forever without him. 

Finally her body succumbed to exhaustion and she fell into a fitful but dreamless sleep. She didn't wake when Jackie came back into the bedroom to check on her, and slept through her mum lying down on the bed beside her and finally giving in to her own tears.


	2. My room feels wrong, the bed won't fit

Rose woke before the dawn the next morning, surprised to see Jackie lying next to her on the bed. Like Rose, she was still dressed in the clothes she'd been wearing when they got into the TARDIS the day before (she later told Rose that Pete had offered her the other Jackie's pyjamas; “That seemed a bit morbid, if you ask me, wearing my dead look-alike's nightie.”). Rose pulled a throw blanket off of a chair in the corner and wrapped it around herself to ward off the early morning chill. She crept out of the room and down the corridor to the stairs. She went through the kitchen and out the door to the garden. In hindsight she later realized it had been a careless decision; the house had an alarm system and she could had set it off and woken up everyone else in the house. Luckily, Pete had forgotten to set the alarm with all the excitement the night before. Rose wandered through the garden, memories of facing the Cybermen with the Doctor overwhelming her. When she reached the spot where they'd been cornered, screaming their surrender, she sat down on the dew-damp grass and looked up at the royal blue sky. They were still close enough to the city that the lights blocked out some of the stars from sight, but the view was still lovely. Rose gazed up at the stars, trying to process what she might do without the Doctor.

She couldn't imagine life without him. After all he'd shown her, how was she supposed to go back to working in a shop, sitting at the pub while the blokes watched a match, eating chips, living an earth-bound life day after day?

Tears welled up in her eyes again. Rose thought she'd cried herself out the day before, but apparently not. She wiped the tears away with the corner of the blanket she was still wrapped in, noticing for the first time its fine–and likely dreadfully expensive–quality. Rose was reminded of what she'd said to the Doctor on their first trip to this universe: neither world had gotten it right. In her home universe, Jackie had a daughter but no husband and no money. This world's Jackie had a husband and loads of money, but no daughter. Now, perhaps, she would have both. This Pete wasn't Jackie's, but perhaps the Doctor's attempt at matchmaking would stick. It would take time, Rose was sure, and wouldn't be easy, but maybe with perseverance and dash of luck they could make it work.

Rose was startled by a hand on her shoulder. She jerked away and looked up to see Pete standing over her. She sighed in relief and gave him a half smile.

“Couldn't sleep,” Pete explained as he sat down next to her. He handed Rose a thermos of something warm. “Tea,” he told her. “I figured you could use a cuppa.”

“Thanks,” she murmured. They lapsed into silence for a time. Rose felt bad for being taciturn, but she didn't know what to say to this man, her not-father. Finally Pete spoke.

“I used to come out here a lot after the last time you were here.”

“Really?” asked Rose.

“Yeah. I used to think about that night, meeting you and your Doctor, Lumic, the Cybermen...losing Jackie.”

“What did you do? How did you...”

“There was still clean-up to be done,” Pete answered. “That kept us busy for awhile. But then things started getting back to normal. Well, as normal as they could be. That's when it got really tough. Jackie and I hadn't gotten on for months before–I told you that night that I'd moved out–but she was still my wife. We'd been married for twenty years, and then in one night... No time to prepare, no time to say goodbye...”

Rose reached over and put her hand on Pete's arm in comfort. She was reminded that she wasn't the only one who was hurting. Pete put his hand over hers and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Still, I couldn't give up. If I did, what was the point of all of that fighting? I came back to the estate and rebuilt what had been destroyed. We rebooted Torchwood–”

At the word Torchwood, Rose shuddered. She pulled her hand from Pete's and curled in on herself.

“Oh, I'm sorry, Love,” Pete breathed. He gave her a moment to collect herself.

“And Vitex? Still going with that, then?” Rose asked after a few minutes, wiping stray tears from her cheeks.

“Always,” smiled Pete. “That's what pays the bills.”

“So, what do I do, now that I'm here?”

“You'll stay here, you and Jackie. If you want. We'll get you identification. Jackie will be easier. I just filed as “presumed dead.” I couldn't bear to... well...”

“But there wasn't another Rose Tyler. At least not one who was your daughter.”

“We'll take care of it, Love,” Pete assured her. “We'll find a way.”

“But that's just paperwork. What will I do?”

“What, you mean a job?”

Rose nodded.

“What did you do before you were off traveling?”

“I worked in a shop,” Rose said. “No A-Levels, no money, no skills.”

“You've saved the world, Rose Tyler; lots of times, I'm sure. Don't be so hard on yourself. What did you want to do? What did you dream of doing?”

“Marrying rich,” Rose laughed mirthlessly. “I dropped out of school for a bloke,” she told Pete. “I ran away from home, gave him all my money, and then he ran off with it. Mum took me back in and helped me find the job at Henrik's, then after a few months I picked up and left for a bloke again.”

“The Doctor?” Pete asked.

“Yeah, of course,” smiled Rose. “I didn't have to quit that time, though. The Doctor blew up the shop. That was how we met.”

Pete chuckled.

“I reckon,” he began carefully, “that you know more about aliens than anyone else in this universe. How would you like to come work for me? Not fighting with aliens,” Pete was quick to point out, “but helping us with the diplomatic side of things–negotiations, communication, that sort of thing. That's our mission now: keeping the peace. What do you think?”

Rose hesitated in answering Pete. His offer was generous, but Rose couldn't imagine jumping right in to work.

“Not right away, of course,” Pete continued in response to Rose's reticence. “You take as long as you need. But know that there is a job for you, if you want it. Or you could go back to school first, if you want. We don't have–what did you call them? A-somethings?”

“A-Levels,” Rose replied.

“Right. A-Levels. We don't have those here, but I but they're like EBE Exams.”

“EBE?” asked Rose.

“English Board of Education; comprehensive tests you take at the end of secondary school for admission to university. We could get you a tutor; I bet it would take you no time at all to get ready for the EBEs, and then you could go on to university, study anything you like.”

“Maybe,” Rose sighed. “I just...I just need time.”

“Of course you do, Love,” Pete said kindly. “You take as much time as you need. I just want you to know that you have options, when you're ready.”

“Thanks, Pete.”

“Now then,” Pete said, standing with thermos in hand and holding his other hand out to Rose, “Let's get back inside before your mother wakes. We don't want to worry her.”

Rose took the proffered hand and stood, still wrapped in that blasted blanket. Pete led the way through the garden and back into the house. Once inside, Rose wound her way through the mansion to the bedroom she'd slept in the night before, finding Jackie still asleep. She slipped into the en-suite, careful not to wake her mother, and turned on the shower before realizing she didn't have any clean clothes to change into. Still, she felt dirty and her head was heavy from crying and lack of sleep. A shower would help, she thought. Rose slipped out of her turquoise jumper and peeled off her black trousers. She had gone outside in bare feet, not wanting to bother with her boots, so her feet were smudged with dirt and grass stains. She shed her underthings and stepped into the shower stall, finding comfort in the almost-too-hot water beating down on her skin. As she watched the dirty water swirling around in the bottom of the stall before slipping down the drain, Rose realised that was the last she would see of her home universe until the Doctor came to take her back.

Suddenly Rose felt tiny, just a speck in the grand plan of the universes. She had rarely felt that way during her time with the Doctor. He always boasted the importance of the little things, saying there was no person or place that wasn't truly important.

“An ordinary man–that's the most important thing in creation.”

The Doctor had shouted that at her when she'd saved Pete–the other Pete, her Pete–back in 1987. Because an ordinary man lived instead of dying that day, there had been a tear in the fabric of time. The Doctor always made her feel hugely important. But now, trapped an entire universe away, Rose felt hugely unimportant.

The tears returned, but for the first time, Rose felt better after crying, not worse. She felt determined not to let herself get lost, but to find a way back to the Doctor.


	3. I cannot seem to operate

Rose emerged from the en suite some time later and found Jackie sitting up in bed, staring out the window at the mansion's grounds. She looked lost in deep reflection.

“Morning, Mum,” she offered, pulling Jackie from her thoughts.

“Morning, Sweetheart,” Jackie replied. She patted the bed beside her, signaling Rose to sit.

“How are you doing?” Rose asked her mother as she climbed onto the bed.

“I don't know. I honestly don't know. What are we supposed to do, Rose?”

“I don't know, Mum.”

“How are you holding up, then?” asked Jackie, putting her arm around her daughter.

Rose shrugged. “I don't know. It doesn't feel real.”

Jackie hugged Rose tight, rubbing her back in a gesture of comfort. Rose sniffled a few times, but otherwise managed to keep the tears at bay for once.

“I'll tell you one thing I do know,” said Jackie, “We are going shopping today. I don't want to wear these clothes another minute.”

“Leave it to you, Mum. War with the Cybermen and Daleks, losing the Doctor, getting trapped in a different universe, and you still want to shop,” Rose teased.

“That's enough cheek from you, thank you,” Jackie said with a small smile, glad to see her daughter making jokes. “Right then, you see if you can rustle up some brekkie while I take a shower. I'll meet you downstairs in a bit.”

Rose followed her mum's instructions and headed back downstairs to the kitchen. She found Pete sitting at the table in the breakfast room nursing a cup of coffee.

“How's your mum?” he asked as Rose sat down across from him. “Still asleep?”

“She's in the shower,” Rose answered. “She sent me to see about breakfast.”

“Right. Breakfast. Erm... Well, the staff is off–I didn't want to overwhelm you and your mum with too many people–but I'm sure we can come up with something.”

“You didn't want to overwhelm us, or you didn't want to have to explain to your staff why your dead wife and her mysterious daughter turned up out of nowhere?”

Caught out, Pete gave Rose a sheepish smile as he went into the kitchen. He rummaged through the cupboards and the erchill, finding some cereal, fruit, and bread for toast. Rose helped prepare the simple meal, chatting amicably with Pete while they worked. When he pulled a jar of marmalade out of the refrigerator, though, Rose fell silent, gripping the counter to keep herself upright. She felt dizzy as she fought back sobs once again. Pete kept chattering away, trying to fill the silence. When he noticed Rose's state, he stopped talking and tentatively put a hand on her shoulder. At his touch, Rose fell apart.

Pete took her in his arms and Rose sagged against him, gripping his dressing gown in tight fists as she sobbed uncontrollably. She felt the heaviness settle back in her chest and the pain return behind her forehead as the tears flowed. Rose was frustrated with herself, falling apart so severely over a man. But it wasn't just a man. It was the Doctor, a life spent travelling through time and space, saving the universe, running for their lives, the TARDIS, the universe she'd grown up in, her friends back home, Jackie's friends, their extended family, their tiny council flat and the memories it held. It was her entire life. She wasn't just crying over a man. She was mourning the loss of everything she'd ever known.

Pete held onto Rose tightly, growing more and more worried as she continued to bawl. She was shuddering, nearly convulsing as she grew more and more upset. Just when he was beginning to panic, Jackie came into the kitchen, catching his eye and giving him a sympathetic look. She sidled up next to them and smoothly took Rose into her own arms. She shushed her daughter, rubbing wide circles over her back and rocking her side to side, just like she'd done when Rose was a little girl. Rose's cries slowed, and she finally reached the blubbering, hiccoughing stage. Jackie pulled back just far enough to look Rose in the eye. She framed her daughter's face with her hands, using her thumbs to wipe the tears from Rose's cheeks.

“Mummy,” Rose whimpered, struggling to regain her composure, “marmalade.”

Jackie looked behind Rose to see the offending jar sitting on the counter. She pulled Rose back into her arms and mouthed to Pete, “bin it.” Pete swept the jar off of the counter and deposited it into the bin, hoping to help stave off another bout of tears.

“There now, Love,” Jackie said as she pulled away again. “Let's sit down and have some brekkie, yeah? A nice cup of tea will have you feeling better.” She led Rose to the breakfast nook and sat her down at the table, promising to come back with tea in a tick.

When she rejoined Pete in the kitchen the man was standing in the middle of the room looking hopelessly lost. His arms dangled loosely at his sides and his shoulders were slumped as if in defeat. Jackie approached him carefully, not wanting to startle him.

“That daft alien.” She shook her head as she moved past Pete to the electric kettle on the counter. “I had to keep jars and jars of marmalade in my cupboard for when he brought Rose home for a visit. He would eat plates full of toast absolutely swimming in marmalade. One night after Rose had gone to bed I went into the kitchen to make a cuppa and he was standing there with his fingers in the jar!”

“So are all preserves going to send her into hysterics, or just marmalade?” Pete asked, not unkindly. “I don't want to leave anything in the cupboards that might upset her again.”

“Just marmalade, so far as I know,” replied Jackie, taking a cursory glance around the kitchen. “Oh, but those bananas have got to go.”

Pete unceremoniously dumped the bananas in the bin on his way back into the breakfast nook to check on Rose.


End file.
